Cornejo, Hannah

 

Rasquachismo is an underdog, or lower class perspective; it uses limited materials in order to satisfy material and decorative needs. What stood out to me while doing the readings, was the creativity of rasquachismo, along with the inventiveness and uniqueness required for the practice of repurposing objects and finding new uses for them other than their intended one. 

Rasquichismo also stands out to me because by unapologetically making the most from little it resists the capitalist narrative, always encouraging consumers to always remain focused on buying the next thing: the next best TV, phone, or laptop. Our consumerist culture never wants us to pause to think about the junk or perfectly functional items we discard on the way to the next new thing. Rasquachismo almost seems to me like a form of mindfulness by encouraging mindful consumption and intentional repurposing. Rasquachismo almost seems like a radical rebellion against the capitalist systems which hold so many people down and create the need for Rasquachismo in the first place. Rasquachismo stands out as a form of creative resiliency and cultural resistance to limited material availability. 

When I was little, my dad would take me to a store in Oakland called the Depot for Creative Reuse. It was a cooperative store which operated based on reselling donations at extremely cheap prices. They sold, “junk,” items most people would throw away or in which they would find no value. These items included: corks, bottlecaps, old photos, magazines, bolts of fabric, rubber stamps, board games, typewriters, stickers, fabric dye, and whatever else people had donated that week. The cooperative took the phrase, “one person’s trash, another person’s treasure,” to heart; they encouraged people to find new ways to repurpose this junk –whether into crafting projects, sewing projects, collages, or other artistic endeavors. So many positive moments from my childhood were spent wandering around this store or playing/creating with items I had found there. When I learned the term Rasquachismo, this was the first place that came to mind; to me, it embodies the creative repurposing of limited materials as defined by Rasquachismo.